{"id":902341,"date":"2026-11-01T17:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902341\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T17:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:08:11","slug":"the-challenge-winner-tori-deal-addresses-if-final-competition-was-rigged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902341\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Challenge’ winner Tori Deal addresses if final competition was ‘rigged’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Challenge: Cutthroat\u201d<\/a> winner Tori Deal pushed back on the accusations that the final competition was \u201crigged\u201d in her team\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cRigged makes me feel like I didn\u2019t have to actually run 27 miles,\u201d she exclusively told Page Six after the season finale on Wednesday. \u201cI would love it to feel like it was rigged and effortless. That was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deal, 33, said the claims about how the final race played out \u201ctake away from the amount of work it took to actually cross that finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge: Cutthroat\u201d winner Tori Deal exclusively told Page Six the claims about the final competition being \u201crigged\u201d take away from her team\u2019s hard work. Page Six<\/p>\n

\u201cRigged makes me feel like I didn\u2019t have to actually run 27 miles,\u201d Deal said. Kaikungwon Duanjumroon\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

The Season 42 finale sparked controversy after the Orange Team \u2014 Deal, Johnny \u201cBananas\u201d Devenanzio, CT Tamburello<\/a>, Michele Fitzgerald and Will Gagnon \u2014 wasn\u2019t penalized when Tamburello required medical assistance in the extreme heat.<\/p>\n

Tamburello was evaluated and allowed to rejoin his team at a later checkpoint with no time penalty, allowing them to beat the Gray Team, comprised of Adrienne Naylor, Alexis Lete<\/a>, Cassidy Clark and Cara Maria Sorbello<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fans online accused production of rigging the competition so the veteran franchise players on the Orange Team could win.<\/p>\n

Deal, who won the season with Will Gagnon, CT Tamburello, Michele Fitzgerald and Johnny Bananas (all pictured above), said the final competition \u201cwas one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d Kaikungwon Duanjumroon\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

Deal (seen here with the rest of the Orange Team) explained that the contestants weren\u2019t explained the full rules of the final race. Kaikungwon Duanjumroon\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

But Deal told us that since the show moved from MTV to Paramount+ for this season, the final race\u2019s rules were unclear to all the contestants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t really know those things going into the game,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe did know for sure that if somebody was medically DQed, that it would not affect the team. So I think that medical evaluation period is kind of like a buffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like the medical evaluation periods still won\u2019t affect because if it goes into medical DQ, well then that was unfair,\u201d Deal continued. \u201cBut if this person ends up quitting, well then now their team is tanked anyway and they\u2019re done. So I think that medical evaluation piece is what people should be looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deal won over $110,000 as the captain of the Orange Team during the finale. Jonne Roriz\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

Deal decided to split the money equally with her four team members, though she playfully took a $1 \u201ccaptain\u2019s fee\u201d from each of them. Kaikungwon Duanjumroon\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

The \u201cAre You the One?\u201d alum reiterated that they \u201cdon\u2019t get rules explained\u201d before the competitions, so they \u201ckind of had to sit with what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winning Orange Team collectively took home $550,000. Deal, as team captain, chose to split the money equally with her four teammates \u2014 though she playfully took a $1 \u201ccaptain\u2019s fee\u201d from each of them.<\/p>\n

Deal, now $110,004 richer, admitted she \u201ccouldn\u2019t have imagined\u201d taking all the money for herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying to me, Tori, why didn\u2019t you steal the money from Bananas and give it to Sarah?\u201d she said, referring to when Devenanzio famously stole $275,000 from Sarah Rice on \u201cThe Challenge: Rivals III\u201d in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, well, I wasn\u2019t there for that situation,\u201d Deal continued. \u201cAnd you know what, I wish Sarah had the opportunity to get it back for herself, but like I\u2019m not gonna be the deliverer of somebody else\u2019s karma. I\u2019m working within my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deal said she \u201ccouldn\u2019t have imagined\u201d taking the $500,000 grand prize for herself Kaikungwon Duanjumroon\/Paramount+<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pretty much made me swear on my cat\u2019s life that I wasn\u2019t gonna steal any money from them,\u201d Deal told us. Page Six<\/p>\n

Deal also revealed she planned her \u201ccaptain\u2019s fee\u201d twist three weeks beforehand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to at least make them shake in their boots a bit,\u201d she said about her team. \u201cBut they pretty much made me swear on my cat\u2019s life that I wasn\u2019t gonna steal any money from them. And once I did that, I was like, all right, I guess I\u2019m gonna share it with you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Challenge\u201d hasn\u2019t been renewed yet for Season 43, and host T.J. Lavin recently said on Devenanzio\u2019s podcast <\/a>that he doesn\u2019t know when filming will resume, leading fans to speculate that the long-running show may get canceled.<\/p>\n

Deal also said that she hasn\u2019t gotten a call for Season 43 yet. Paramount+<\/p>\n

Deal (seen here at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards) said she\u2019s \u201chopeful\u201d about appearing on the show again. Pari Dukovic\/CBS<\/p>\n

Deal, who made her \u201cChallenge\u201d debut in 2017, told us that she\u2019s in the dark about the show\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not gotten a call. I think that I\u2019ve heard that a lot of other people haven\u2019t,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Deal said she\u2019s \u201chopeful\u201d about appearing on the show again, but \u201cuntil I get a phone call or I\u2019m on a plane, I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Challenge: Cutthroat\u201d winner Tori Deal pushed back on the accusations that the final competition was \u201crigged\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[91,88,186,118813,327154,92,24812],"class_list":["post-902341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-season-finale","tag-the-challenge","tag-tv","tag-virtual-reali-tea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}